livs-dnd-recap

[livs-dnd-recap]

Session 5: Shit, meet fan

Our Cast of characters: x

Vallaki, cont:

Norix, upon seeing the summoned demon boy, is filled with a sense of dread. He responds by trying to shoot him, but is unsuccessful (I mean, what kind of demon would it be if it got taken out by a particularly sharp stick, amirite?)

Outside, a large rumble is heard and felt throughout the city, sounding and feeling similar to an earthquake. The party members who had been attending the Burgermeister’s step outside and find that the moon and stars have disappeared, leaving the sky blank and dark. 

The party regroups, and Norix leaves the building, panicking because of what he experienced with the demon boy. Cadwick stays outside, trying to calm him down, while the rest of the party investigate the ceremony room. 

We find that all of the cultists were killed in an identical way, and looting searching the bodies, we find an old unique key on Lady Fiona’s corpse. 

Norix is too shaken up to come back inside, so he and Cadwick decide to head back to the Inn.

Inside, the rest of us explore the rest of the house. We find Fiona’s room, and inside her husband lays dead, presumably poisoned. Based on a portrait in the room, we are able to determine that the two drunken men who Rizzo mistook for the hunters are Fiona’s sons. 

 Searching the room, we find a note on the back of a portrait of the family that reads “For Strahd”, as well as a box inside the wardrobe. The key found on Fiona unlocks it, and inside are the stolen bones of Saint Andreas. In the dresser, we find letters between Lady Fiona and Strahd that paint a picture of their Master/Servant relationship, and Fiona’s goal to open a gateway to the keepers of the dark powers.

Downstairs, in the study, we find a hidden compartment in a writing desk that contains notes about the Necronomicon. The papers have a drawing of a pentagram very similar to the one within the ceremony chamber, but with subtle differences. It is unknown whether these differences were a mistake or intentional. There is also the name of the demon the pentagram shown would summon which begins with an S, but a smear of ink has rendered the rest of the name unreadable. 

We start to head back to the inn to rejoin Norix and Cadwick, and pass the saber toothed tiger on the way back. It is agitated and pacing its cage in a way we’ve never seen it do. 

Before we can reach the inn, we are interrupted by a group of guards who seem harried running towards the gates. Ayla volunteers to go get the bloodhunters from the tavern while the rest of the party follows the guards to see what’s up. She takes flight, attempting to gain enough height to see what’s happening at the gates, but finds that there seems to be a dark mist or fog of some sort above the city, which blots out her view as she ascends. She abandons the attempt and heads for the Inn/Tavern, and on the way there notices that perched on the rooftops of the city are even more ravens than before. 

Ayla collects Norix and Cadwick, and the two head off to the gates of the city to rejoin the rest of the party. Meanwhile, Rizzo has gone to find the man who owns the saber toothed tiger in hopes that the tiger can help fight. The man is startled to find that the tiger has been worked into a frenzy, and he decides to leave instead.

The party reconvenes at the South gate, where the most guards have gathered and a watch tower stands. Ayla flies up to the top of the city wall to take a look at what is attacking, and sees a druid surrounded by twig blights. The druid is halfway between wolf and human.

Relaying this information, Ayla flies off to do a scan of the perimeter, finding a Hidden Bundle at the West gate, and a swarm of bats approaching the East. 

With their powers combined, Gren and Rizzo are able to dispatch the druid and it’s blights quickly, and we move to the west to take on the Hidden Bundle.

Ayla tries to use the wand she previously purchased and finds that it currently does fuckall.

We fight the Hidden Bundle, a really bad to look at blob of flesh and body parts that spends the fight yelling at Norix to ‘come back to the forest’ which makes about zero sense to any of us. 

We kill the thing (doing a favor to the universe and everything in it) and race to head off the swarm of bats. We’re able to take out a good number of them, but a decently sized swarm still reaches their destination at the church where we arrive to find Ireena being mobbed by them. 

We try to protect Ireena but are helpless to stop it as she disappears, Strahd’s voice telling her that it’s time for her to return to him.

The priest is inconsolable, and we learn that he was the one who granted Strahd entry to the church. 

The gravedigger shows up, and we return the saint’s bones and clear his name. 

Norix tells us what happened in the ceremony room, and Cadwick storms off to the Coffin-maker’s shop while we follow. 

The shop is dark when we arrive, and we find the coffin maker sitting inside, surrounded by bottles of alcohol. 

Cadwick threatens him, and he begins to babble about demons walking the streets. We get it out of him that the church will be safe now that the bones have been returned, and that he has only been doing what Strahd has commanded him to because his family are being held hostage at Castle Ravenholm. 

Gren opens one of the coffins in the shop, which wakes the vampire spawn inside. Cadwick uses his experience as a bloodhunter to dispatch it without much fuss, and begins to go from coffin to coffin killing the spawn within.

He gets through two before the boy demon appears before us, cursing us blind and unable to breathe until we agree to leave the shop and not return. Cadwick tries to fight the demon by turning into a bear and nearly gets his asshole turned inside out before we stop him. We leave, knowing we can’t defeat the demon, and decide to go find Ismark and tell him about his sister.

Cadwick chooses not to join us in returning to the tavern to find Ismark, and instead goes off to transform back from his bear form alone. 

At the tavern, we find Ismark passed out drunk and wake him up to tell him about Ireena. He’s upset but not surprised, and we decide to ask the barkeep if he might have any information for us about the fortunes we were told at the Vasanti camp. 

He tells us about a ‘Luna Lake’ located near Krezk, that we think might be the pool blessed by a white sun referred to in the first fortune. With this new lead, and no indication that the night is ever going to end, we decide to leave immediately, only to be unable to find Cadwick.

Outside the walls of the city, Cadwick transforms back only to find himself surrounded by hunters wielding pikes. 

[livs-dnd-recap]

Session 4: Something is rotten in the city of Vallaki

Our Cast of characters: x

Vallaki

We arrive in Vallaki, and with some convincing the guards allow us to enter the city, mostly because of the siblings.

Inside, it looks like the city is preparing for some kind of festival. 

Ismark pays us for completing our end of the bargain, and he and Ireena part ways with our group, Ireena heading to the church and Ismark the local tavern. 

We decide to head towards the Inn/Tavern ourselves. It’s fairly normal inside, or at least as normal as ‘taxidermied wolf heads on pikes as table decorations’ can be. The lower floor is the tavern, and an open second floor rings the room with balconies and the rooms of the inn. 

Gren speaks with the barkeep, and we learn that two patrons sitting at a table are the hunters responsible for all of the wolf trophies that decorate the town and Inn. These two are the only ones who venture out at night.

Ayla asks about the festival preparations, and the barkeep explains that the city is preparing for a Sun Festival held every year where the citizens burn a slain wolf carcass as a sacrifice to the Sun God to protect the city. 

We find out that a strange man came through the town around a week prior, and spoke to the city’s coffin-maker shortly before the bones of a saint were stolen from beneath the church. 

Rizzo and Norix go to speak to the hunters, Rizzo accidentally speaking to and freaking out a pair of strangers first.

The hunters speak with us and warn us against going into the forest, because of how dangerous it is, especially at night. We tell them that we had just traveled through the forests for several days without incident, and the hunters are wary, telling us that we must be blessed in some way to have such luck.

At this point, Ayla decides to go for a fly and check out the layout of the city. During this, she notices that the rooftops are abnormally full of ravens, and in the distant sky, a swarm of bats is flying away from the city towards the castle Ravenholm. 

Clow goes for a walk, and discovers a saber toothed tiger being kept in a barred cart. While investigating it, he notices two cloaked figures entering a nearby mansion. 

Gren, meanwhile, has a vision of the white cat, which waits for her to follow it. She does so after transforming into a cat herself, and it leads her to the church where a service is ending. Gren shifts back and speaks with the priest, who tells her about a rivalry between the city’s Burgermeister and a woman named Lady Fiona, who has been suspected of leading followers in devil worship. 

The priest also tells Gren of a child orphan who was adopted from the city recently, who they have not heard word from since leaving towards a town called ‘Krezk’ with their new adoptive parents. 

The party regroups at the Tavern, and share our new information. We ask the barkeep if she might know where Krezk is, worried that the child may have been a victim of the witches we’d killed, and are relieved to find that the town is several miles south of Vallaki, no where near the mill.

We take a room for the night, and are woken by the crowing of a rooster as morning dawns on the first sunny day since arriving in this realm. 

The party heads out to the shops to stock up on supplies. There, Ayla is drawn to a wand, which feels like an extension of herself and her magic. The others stock up on monster fighting gear, and from the shop we split up and part of the party decide to go to the church and have our weapons blessed. 

At the church, we see Ireena again, and the Priest blesses our weapons, but warns us that it is only temporary and will wear off. 

We chat with Father Lucien, and learn that he does not agree with the Burgermeister’s Sun Festival, and finds it barbaric. 

Meanwhile, Hazel and Gren had split off to visit the coffin-maker. They arrive at the shop to find a drab building, and an even more drab man inside. They’re able to convince the coffin-maker that they are from a ‘Coffin Institute’ there to check his records, and he allows them inside. 

They ask him about the strange man who had visited before the bones of St Andreas were stolen, but the coffin-maker tells them he hadn’t left a name. He does tell them, however, that the man asked him to ‘take care of his friends’ and warns Gren not to open the coffins in his workshop. Unfortunately, this is said while Hazel is in the act of opening one of them and she catches a glimpse of the person inside opening his eyes and looking back at her before she closes the lid once more (the spooky scary skeletons song begins to play in the distance)

The party regroups, and as we head back towards the church to investigate the room the bones were stolen from, we run into the Burgermeister, who is out spreading the word about the festival. He speaks to us and invites us all to join him at his mansion for dinner. We accept and continue on to the church.

Upon investigating the chest where the bones were being kept, we find signs that it was an inexpert robbery, leaving tool marks behind. 

We go to speak to the gravedigger, an ill tempered young man who takes some convincing before he’ll speak to us. He describes his experience of the night the bones were stolen, that he heard the sound of metal breaking and went out to investigate, where he saw the strange man who spoke to the coffin-maker. From his description, we realize with some dread that the strange man was Strahd himself. 

Strahd being able to enter the city, and potentially the church means Ireena is still likely in danger. We go to warn her and she thanks us for the heads up, reassuring us that she will be on guard.

While we are there, Lady Fiona stops by the church carrying a ceremonial dagger she wishes to have blessed by the priest. Its hilt bears a skull and arm bones, and the entire thing is crafted from silver. 

We chat with her while the priest blesses the knife, and she tells us that she has no faith in the Burgermeister or his festivals, which is why she has been preforming her own rituals at her home, where they sacrifice dark beasts from the forest. She invites us to join her that evening, and half the party agrees. 

That evening, the party splits, some going to the Burgermeister’s for the dinner he invited us to, and the others going to Lady Fiona’s.

The Burgermeister’s house shows how run down the city is, and the food isn’t great, but the group attending have no issues and leave unharmed.

At Lady Fiona’s, however, the party members attending are welcomed inside. Lady Fiona explains that she plans to end all evil that night, and as they enter the ceremony room, they are all bound in chains to an announcement that they are to be the night’s sacrifices. Redacted, only Norix is chained and locked inside the ceremony room.

The ceremony begins, but something strange happens. Instead of the party being killed, it is the cult members who are slaughtered in an instant, as something is summoned in the center of the room. He is a pale, young man in dark robes, and as he looks around, he greets Norix warmly as a friend.

[livs-dnd-recap]

Session 3: Poor Life Choices

Our Cast of characters: x

The Camp

When we last left off, our party had just decided to greet the Vasanti. The clouds boiling (which is really pretty ominous in retrospect), they enter the camp. 

There are 12 Vasanti, 3 of them sober and surveying the area while the rest drink and party. We greet them, and are thankfully welcomed, beckoned over to join a group of them who are gathered around a fire. They tell us that they are partying to celebrate their freedom, which seems to be something they probably do often.

One of the Vasanti begins to tell us a story about a battle between Strahd and a Wizard. That the two fought, but the Wizard was ultimately cast into the river Ivlis and swept away. He goes on to tell us that the Vasanti dance to charm people, and that there was once a time when Strahd also danced, implying that he was not always a vampire. 

One of the Vasanti, Madam Eva, is a fortune teller, and the party decides to go get their fortunes read. Ayla however, stays behind, stating that she ‘already knows what her future is, and that it’s going to be some kind of bullshit, probably’ 

The rest of the party hear the following:

Look to the west, find a pool blessed by the white sun (could be son?)

Look to the wizard of wines, in wood and sand the treasure hides (about a holy symbol of great hope)

Go to the mountains and climb the tower (about a sword of sunlight)

A fallen paladin within a dragon’s lair

He dwells with the one who sealed his doom 

Gren requests a solo reading with the fortune teller/witch where she finds out some information about the demon (old antler man) that follows her. She also finds out that he’s not the only thing following her, and is told about a white cat that sits upon a mound of death. 

Clow and Cadwick partake in the Vasanti wine and partying, and Clow approaches one of the guards who is not celebrating. 

The 3 sober watchmen have guard duty to protect the camp against monsters, and as such are not allowed to drink. 

The female guard tells us that the fastest way to get to the city is down a nearby path, and another guard warns us to be aware of the skies, that the bats and ravens watch us.

The night feels longer than average, and we decide to head west following the guard’s directions. 

The Forest: Road Trip part 2

Eventually, we come to a canyon and a waterfall, and have to cross a stone bridge to get to the other side. Ismark tells us that while he is skilled at reading and remembering maps, he may not be the best at applying them, and he expects we’ll reach Valakin much faster than he originally thought. 

We encounter at one point, a living scarecrow that isn’t nearly as friendly as the one in the Wizard of Oz. This one is a spooky boi, its gut stuffed with dead crows (you’re supposed to scare them, not eat them, my dude) and its arms end in wicked looking metal claws. Unsurprisingly, it attacks us, only for Gren to more or less obliterate it from time and space with the powers of the moon.

We keep going, and come across a windmill that Ireena and Ismark don’t like the look of. Rizzo decides to stay with them while the rest of us check it out anyways.

Inside the windmill is an awful smell emanating from a barrel in the center of the main room. Something less awful smelling is baking in an oven nearby, and from upstairs come the sounds of a witch. 

The barrel is full of demon ichor, and as Gren attempts to check out what’s cooking in the oven, the witch comes downstairs. We try to convince her we’re friendly, but she pulls out a dagger, so Ayla shoots her.

Two other women come downstairs, and one of them summons a ‘Dretch’ from the barrel of ichor. 

We quickly realize we dun fucked up and checking out the windmill was probably a mistake, but it’s too late now.

The battle is long and arduous, and Rizzo is knocked out for the 3rd time in 3 sessions, but we ultimately prevail against the witches. 

Investigating the mill, we find objects belonging to children, and on the 3rd floor, a trapdoor in the ceiling. We realize this is a child mill, and around us is the evidence of the deaths of countless children. 

Cadwick finds 6 pieces of costume jewelry but he’s a meanie butthead and doesn’t share the loot with the rest of the party. Guess who’s paying for the inn next time we stay in one? Hint: it’s him. He will be paying.

On the way out of the mill, Ayla sets each room on fire, intent on burning such an evil place to the ground. This panics Ismark and Ireena, as the massive pyre the mill is about to become will act as a beacon to monsters.

We flee the area and make our way into the forest posthaste, and when we stop to take a breath after a respectable distance, we notice a tree that doesn’t look like the others. Upon closer inspection we realize it’s made out of flesh, and on the trunk under a layer of skin is a human face. 

Ayla removes the skin barrier, revealing the rotting face beneath and we decide that’s a good indicator that we should move on.

Eventually, our path leads us to a road, beyond which are the gates with guards posted outside, and the walls surrounded by pikes, on which wolf heads have been impaled. These are the gates to Valakin, which we have managed to safely transport Ireena (so far) to.

[livs-dnd-recap]

Session 2: Barovia

Our Cast of characters: x

The Town 

With the town now revealed, the party decides to check out the tavern and see what info they can gather. From the bartender, we learn that the town is called Barovia.

In the tavern, we discover a suspicious and potentially malicious talking chair. The chair keeps trying to get someone to sit on it, promising that he will heal them to full health. Through the chair, we learn that the town, and greater realm is controlled by a guy named Strahd. 

Clow makes a deal with the chair that he will sit in him in exchange for more information about where we are. The chair agrees, and tells us about the ruler, Strahd, who descended from Royalty and has been cooped up in his castle for ages. When he does leave the castle, the townspeople fear him and his power.

The chair reveals that he was once a man, but Strahd killed him and had his soul bound to the chair, which is cursed to remain within the tavern. Strahd is inhuman, and has been ruling for an abnormally long time, because he is a vampire. The people of the town are trapped, with Strahd as the cause.

As agreed, Clow sits in the chair, only to be immediately possessed by the spirit, until he is knocked out by the rest of the party at which point the soul returns to the chair once more. (What a dickhead amirite?)

Done with that bullshit, we move tables, going to join another customer of the tavern at his table. He tells us his name is Ismark, and explains that Strahd is trying to turn his sister into a vampire, and asks for our help. We agree in exchange for all the money he has (because we’re helpful, but not saints).

We strike a deal, and Ismark invites us back to his father’s home, his father being the late Burgermeister of the town. We accept and he leads us to a run down mansion. As we leave the tavern, we are watched by the other patrons who turn to talk among themselves. 

Ismark’s family home is large but falling to ruin. There are wolf tracks in the mud outside of the mansion, as though a pack has passed through recently. 

Inside, the mansion is decorated with religious imagery (a nice break from the death theme of the last house we were in, honestly). In a side room is the late Burgermeister in a display coffin.

We meet Ireena, Ismark’s sister. She is armed, and has clear bite marks on her neck, evidence that Ismark was telling the truth. The plan is to escort Ireena and Ismark out of town and to the city of Valakin where Strahd will hopefully be unable to find her. Ireena, however, refuses to leave until her father has had a proper burial. They have been unable to do so thus far because Ireena is a target of monster attacks whenever she steps foot outside. 

A plan is formed that we will guard her for the trip across town to the church so she can lay her father to rest and finally leave town. 

The next morning we regroup, and begin the move. Gren turns into a moose using her Druid powers, and carries the coffin. Ayla flies overhead to keep watch for enemies, and the party proceeds to the Church, meeting no resistance, surprisingly.

The church is in the same state of decay as the rest of the town, falling apart in areas, and as we enter we hear a scream from below the floor. Ireena is unphased by this, although she doesn’t know what is causing it. 

We speak to the priest and head out to the cemetery to begin the funeral. Meanwhile, Ayla goes inside to investigate the source of the scream. In one of the rooms off of the nave, she finds a trapdoor set into the floor. Using her ranger senses, she is able to determine that the source of the screams is something undead. Outside, Norix and Cadwick stay with the funeral to stand guard, while Gren and Rizzo join Ayla inside. 

Together, the three spring the padlock on the trapdoor, and cautiously descend into the basement. Below, is a large, filthy room, and huddled in one corner, a vampire spawn, the source of the screaming. 

His name is Doru, and we restrain him but he’s feral with hunger and can’t focus on anything but screaming. Ayla casts goodberries and force feeds Doru the entire handful, which equates to 10 days worth of food. This is enough to calm him down to the point where he can speak with us.

Doru tells us that he is the priest’s son, and that he was turned by Strahd while storming the castle with his father and a group of other men. Ayla is able to convince him to come with us, but it’s determined that it would be too risky for all of us, Doru because of the sun’s effects, and on us because of his bloodlust. She promises that we will come back for him and try to find a way to cure him, and we leave the basement, locking the trapdoor once again. 

The funeral is over and we speak briefly with the Priest about his son, before deciding to head to the one shop in town to stock up before we begin our journey with Ireena and Ismark.

Once finished our shopping, we head back out into the town only to find that a black carriage has pulled up in front of the shop, Strahd himself stepping out. We attempt to remove his hat or cloak in a bid to distract him enough to escape, but our attempts fail and he nearly kills Rizzo in the process. Cadwick, however, is able to freeze him in place long enough that the druids can turn into horses and escape, carrying the other party members while Ayla takes to the sky, splitting up with plans to regroup later to hopefully throw Strahd off our trail. 

The Woods: Road Trip part 1

Our escape attempt is successful, and we regroup in the forest, but it is quickly becoming night so we can only travel a little further before having to set up camp for the night. In the distance we can hear a road in the distance, and decide on a rotation to keep watch through the night. 

Ayla takes the first watch, and is able to hear the distant sounds of partying during her shift.

On Rizzo’s watch, she spots a strange creature coming towards the camp and has to wake everyone. It’s a pale, gaunt, druid and while unnerving, he doesn’t seem aggressive and we’re able to distract it by throwing a rock to make a sound, which it runs off in the direction of. 

The rest of the night passes uneventfully, and we break camp the next morning. While travelling, we pass a clearing where a set of gallows stand, and Norix hallucinates herself as the corpse hanging from it. We move on quickly.

Later in the day, we happen upon a farmhouse sitting in an open field, a farmer out tilling the soil. He offers us a room for the night, but we decline as it’s too early in the day to stop just yet. 

As we travel, the sounds of partying Ayla heard the night before grow audible, and louder as we move closer to the source. Rizzo transforms into a fox in order to scope it out, and finds and encampment. 

Ismark tells us they’re likely a group of travelling people called the Vastani who are blessed by Strahd himself.

Though it could be dangerous, the party decides to go and say hello, never mind that talking to strangers is yet another thing our parents warned us not to do, meaning that up next: someone’s going to put something in their mouth despite not knowing what it is (probably).

[livs-dnd-recap]

Session 1: The Story Begins

Our Cast of characters: x

The Woods

Norix and Cadwick are in the woods when they have a vision. A mist rises and obscures the woods while a white cat sits atop a pile of death.

They wake up and form a camp. One by one, the party members arrive as though drawn by an unseen force, or perhaps a storyteller who needs the cast to meet so we don’t spend an entire session just getting everyone to meet up.

Introductions happen, and just as everyone is starting to get past that awkward ‘we just met and I’m not sure you’re not a crazy person’ stage, the group experiences a mass vision.

A thick, white mist rolls in, and a strange voice speaks to us all, welcoming us as his newest dancers.

When the voice fades out the mist disappears, revealing that the forest has changed. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. 

All of the trees have become dead and withered, and a path through the woods has formed, in a not at all suspicious way. 

Ignoring common sense and all the warnings our mothers ever gave us, we decide to follow the path, because otherwise it’d be a really boring campaign.

Eventually, the forest path becomes a gravel road that leads our group into a small town. 

The town is shrouded in mist, and it’s hard to get a clear picture of the surroundings. A pair of young children standing outside of a house appear to be the only life we can see, and one of them is crying. 

We approach the children of the corn, named Rose and Thorn, and they calm down enough to tell us that they have a brother who is still trapped within the house, and that there is a monster in the basement. 

Again, ignoring all those lessons about not getting in a stranger’s van, half of our party agrees to go inside and check things out while the others wait outside. Norix, Cadwick, Ayla and Gren head inside, while Rizzo, Clow and Hazel stay outside with the children.

As she enters the house, Gren sees an old man with a deer’s head standing in the mist for an instant before he disappears.

The house is large and expensive and there are subtle skulls and snakes incorporated into the decorations that only become apparent on closer inspection.

The group move upstairs and find more ‘normal at first but actually pretty gruesome if you look again’ artwork, and a suit of armor.

Upon inspection, the armor comes to life and attacks the gang, who dispatch it only to hear a child’s voice emanate from within it as it dies. It whispers “Brother” in a very FMA kind of way and we all have sudden ‘nam style flashbacks to the Nina chimera.

Outside, Rizzo has decided to enter the house, and makes her way into the hunter’s den on the first floor. It is filled with hunting paraphernalia, including several stuffed wolves. She quickly moves on to the next room, which turns out to be a dining room, featuring a large mural of a wolf hunt.

Moving on, the next room is a kitchen, which bears a dumbwaiter large enough to hold a small child, or a small child sized gnome. Rizzo climbs inside, and it carries her up to the 3rd floor. 

On the second floor, the armor killers have found a passage to bring them up to the 3rd floor hidden in the wall, and they travel up to join Rizzo. 

Once up there, they investigate the rooms and find a bathroom, a storage room containing a (quite aggressive) magic broom, and a nursemaid’s quarters, containing a female spectre. 

We enter the nursemaid’s room, and the spectre attacks. We respond in kind and discover that physical attacks are useless, and she’s emotionally attached to a shrouded cradle in the attached nursery. 

Rizzo, while trying to find a weapon that will harm the ghost, breaks a mirror in the room, only to find a hidden staircase behind it leading up. She attacks the ghost to no avail, and has her life partially drained by our spooky foe instead. 

To save her, Ayla dashes across the room and scoops her up, fleeing the fight up the newly revealed hidden stairs. 

We discover that holy water harms the ghost, and take full advantage of that fact to kick her ass six ways to sunday.

Now free to explore, Ayla checks the nursery and finds an infant sized bundle behind the shroud, tightly wrapped. However, when she checks, she finds nothing inside.

Outside, Hazel tries to explore the mist but finds that the rest of the world seems to have disappeared, while Clow gets bored and decides to join the party inside. 

Hazel also decides she's had enough of the great misty outdoors and tries to get the children to follow her inside, to which they refuse. To try and circumvent this, she carries the children and attempts to climb up to the 3rd floor. While doing so, she drops the children, injuring them. 

Meanwhile, the party has moved on to the attic via the passage revealed behind the mirror. Upstairs is a series of doors which reveal spare bedrooms containing scant furniture, and in one a creepy but ultimately harmless doll.

Behind a door to the north is a storage room filled with furniture, and an unlocked trunk containing an adult skeleton. 

One of the doors in the attic is locked, so we crowbar it open to reveal a child's room with bricked up windows. It contains a chest and a doll house, which is a miniature scale replica of the house we're in. In the middle of the room are two small skeletons, dressed in the clothes Rose and Thorn were wearing. 

It's at this point that Hazel joins the rest of the group, and before us appear Thorn and Rose. We speak to them briefly, before we notice a stairway in the doll house that leads directly to the basement.

We find the staircase and take it, descending into the basement which is actually a series of tunnels that resemble a dungeon. In the distance we hear ghostly chanting and begin to follow it. 

As we travel through the basement, we come upon a large dining area filled with bones, and in an alcove a Grick, which Ayla eats once we kill it.

Further into the dungeon, we navigate a pit trap and eventually approach the chanting. We find a chamber with approximately 15 disembodied cult member voices chanting “He is the ancient, he is the land.”

In the chamber are various occult artifacts, which Rizzo sends her rats to go and collect. We burn the lot of them and continue on our way.

Finally we come to a lowered portcullis, with the lifting mechanism on the far side. Rizzo transforms into a rat to get to the other side and raises it to let the rest of the party through.

Inside, the chanting stops as we enter a 40x40x40 chamber containing an alter, and on the far side of the room, a shambling mound.

We engage it in battle, and Cadwick is killed in the fight, revealing that he is a were-bear, which takes over.

The fight is difficult, but we eventually kill the shambling mound, and Kohl is able to take his body back from the bear. 

Cultists appear in the room, chanting “one must die”.

Deciding this is bullshit, Ayla decides to leave and the rest of the party follow, making our way back up and out of the dungeon. 

When we arrive back at the house, we find that it has changed, now decrepit and decomposing, all windows and doors blocked in some way.

We attempt to break down a wall, only for rats to pour out of the newly created hole, however Rizzo is able to befriend the rats. She commands them to chew through the bricks covering the balcony doors, and the party is freed, climbing down the rope Hazel used to climb up. 

Once everyone is safely outside, the mist begins to clear, revealing more of the town we’re in, and before our eyes, the house ages visibly, turning old and decrepit.